Device for pharmacy prescription shelf use to store medications and information related to the medications

ABSTRACT

The present invention is a device or system for providing printed medication-specific informational and promotional materials to patients or customers in conjunction with filling a prescription medication. The device or system of the present invention is designed to make efficient use of a pharmacy prescription shelf. A container tray is formed with forward recesses to hold medication supply containers. The forward recesses are preferably molded to specifically receive medication supply containers. The tray is also formed with a rearward recess to hold an upright sleeve containing informational material comprising information related to the medication in the supply container. The tray and sleeve construction permits the pharmacist to readily identify and access the medication supply container and simultaneously view and access the informational materials.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention generally relates to devices and systems configured to hold goods, articles, or materials, and particularly devices and systems in which goods, articles, or materials are displayed or arranged to facilitate use or storage. More specifically, the present invention relates to containers for two or more diverse articles or materials, wherein at least one of the contents is a sheet bearing indicia, a card, or a pamphlet. The present invention also relates to tray-type containers for supporting diverse cooperatively useful articles in two or more specifically contoured cells.

2. Background of the Invention

Generally, when a pharmacist or pharmacy staff member fills a prescription, the prescribed medication is manually dispensed from a supply container, such as a bottle or box. A pharmacist or a pharmacy staff member removes the supply container from a pharmacy shelf, dispenses the medication, and then returns the supply container to the pharmacy shelf. Such manual filling of prescriptions must be done efficiently in order that patients or customers may obtain their prescribed medications as quickly as possible. To that end, efficient organization of pharmacy shelves is a high priority.

Once the pharmacist or the pharmacy staff has dispensed a given prescribed medication, the pharmacist is generally required to provide information about the prescribed medication to the patient or customer. The required prescription information, in general, relates to dosage, potential side effects, and other useful and necessary information relating to the efficacy and possible toxicity of the medication. However, the pharmacist and the pharmacy staff are mostly too busy to provide the required prescription information, particularly by speaking directly to the patients or customers. Therefore, required prescription information is usually only available in printed information sheets, pamphlets, and/or brochures. Although some of this information may be printed from the pharmacy computer, which makes it readily available to the pharmacist, it is often desirable to augment this information with pamphlets, brochures, and other materials. However, there are two problems the pharmacist has with these additional materials: 1) There is no room behind most pharmacy counters to store informational materials, and no system for doing so, and 2) being pressed for time in having to fill numerous prescriptions, the pharmacist and pharmacy staff are often unable to spend the time necessary to locate the appropriate printed information sheets, pamphlets, or brochures if stored somewhere else. Thus, there is a need to resolve this adverse situation.

Furthermore, the pharmaceutical company that produces the prescribed medication may desire to provide promotional material to the patient or customer at the time the prescription is filled. Again, there is no room for storage of such materials behind the pharmacy counter, and the pharmacist and pharmacy staff are unable to spend the time necessary to locate the appropriate promotional material if stored elsewhere since the pharmacist and pharmacy staff are, as previously stated, pressed for time in having to fill numerous prescriptions.

In the unrelated product display art, it was known to provide a bracket adjacent the edge of a shelf to support products for display to the consumer, such product display art constructions are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,321,475 to Glanz, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,201,291 to Davidson.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is an object of the present invention to provide a device or system for storing information sheets and promotional material in conjunction with storing a particular medication, where the pharmacist and pharmacy staff can conveniently retrieve them while filling a prescription. This unique combination resolves the objection pharmacists have to storing informational materials on the pharmacy shelf, thereby displacing product, since the material is combined with product storage. It is also an object of the present invention to provide an information storage device or system as aforesaid that makes efficient use of existing space on the pharmacy shelf.

The present invention is a device or system for providing printed medication-specific informational and promotional materials to patients or customers in conjunction with filling a prescription medication. The device or system of the present invention is designed to be placed on a pharmacy shelf. Further, this invention provides access for many types of informational material in the area behind the pharmacy counter that has traditionally been off limits to informational material.

A container tray according to the present invention is disposed on a pharmacy prescription shelf, preferably adjacent to the shelf edge. The container tray is formed with forward recesses to hold medication supply containers. The forward recesses are preferably molded to specifically receive medication supply containers of a specific shape and size. Significantly, the container tray is also formed with a rearward recess to hold an upright sleeve or box containing removable brochures or other printed information about the medication in the medication supply container. The sleeve may also hold removable brochures related to promotions by the pharmaceutical company that produced the medication in the medication supply container. The tray and sleeve construction permits the pharmacist to identify and access the medication in the supply container and simultaneously view and access the pamphlets.

The pharmacist who fills the prescription first removes the supply container from the tray, dispenses the medication into a prescription bottle or container, replaces the medication storage container in the tray, removes a brochure from the sleeve, and simultaneously gives both the prescription bottle and the information sheet or brochure to the patient or customer, for example, in a bag. As an advantage, the system of the present invention reduces the problem of lost, misplaced, or discarded information sheets, which is a perennial problem in the restricted space behind the pharmacy prescription counter, and helps the pharmacist and pharmacy staff to remember to distribute information with the prescription.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a front perspective view of a device for a pharmacy prescription shelf useful to store medications with documentation related to the medications according to the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a top plan view of a tray for the system of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a side elevation view of the system of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a front elevation view of the system of FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is a side sectional view of the system of FIG. 1 taken upon plane 5-5 shown in FIG. 4;

FIG. 6 is a front perspective view of the system of FIG. 1 being used to display and store medication supply containers with removable documents or printed information;

FIG. 7 is an exploded view of the system of FIG. 5;

FIG. 8 is side elevation view of the system of FIG. 5; and

FIG. 9 is a front elevation view of the system of FIG. 5.

DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Referring to the Figures and FIG. 1 in particular, there is shown a device for pharmacy prescription shelf use to store medications and information related to the medications, generally indicated as reference numeral 1. Device 1, in one broad aspect, includes a container tray 10 and a sleeve 30.

Referring to FIG. 2, container tray 10 is shown as generally rectilinear and having a contiguous base defined by a periphery, which periphery has a front edge 11, side edges 12 and 13, and a rear edge 14. Edges 11 and 14 are generally parallel and define the length or longitudinal dimension of container tray 10. Edges 12 and 13 are generally parallel and define the width or lateral dimension of container tray 10. Container tray 10 may have any suitable peripheral shape, but preferably has a length that is greater than its width since conservation of lateral space on a pharmacy shelf is more important than conservation of longitudinal space. A contiguous surrounding wall 15 extends around the periphery of container tray 10 and has a forward wall portion 16, side wall portions 17 and 18, and a rear wall portion 19. Wall portions 16, 17, 18, and 19 respectively have corresponding edges 11, 12, 13, and 14. Wall portions 16, 17, 18, and 19 may be spaced apart from their respective edges 11, 12, 13, and 14, thereby forming a peripheral lip 20 as shown in the figures. The contiguous surrounding wall 15 defines an internal contiguous base area that is further partitioned by a lateral partition 21 and a longitudinal partition 22. Lateral partition 21 extends, preferably without significant interruption, between side wall portions 17 and 18 at an angle substantially perpendicular to side wall portions 17 and 18. Longitudinal partition 17 extends, preferably without significant interruption, between forward wall portion 16 and lateral partition 18 at an angle substantially perpendicular to forward wall portion 16 and lateral partition 18. Therefore, lateral partition 21 is substantially parallel to wall portions 16 and 19, while longitudinal partition 22 is substantially parallel to side wall portions 17 and 18. Longitudinal partition 22 is preferably about 3 inches (about 7.6 cm) in length.

Forward recesses 23 and 24 are defined by front wall portion 16, side wall portions 17 and 18, lateral partition 21, and longitudinal partition 22. A rearwardly disposed recess 25 is defined by side wall portions 17 and 18, rear wall portion 19, and lateral partition 21. Recesses 23, 24, and 25 are generally rectilinear. Recesses 23 and 24 are generally the same size, and recess 25 is generally about four times the size of either recess 23 or 24. Nonetheless, the exact size and shape of recesses 23, 24, and 25 are dictated by their intended purpose as further described below. Likewise, the exact size and shape of container tray 10 is dictated only by the size and shape of recesses 23, 24, and 25. Preferably, the forward portion of container tray 10 is about 3 inches as measured between rearward recess 25 and front edge 11.

Container tray 10 may be made with any suitable material, such as paper, card stock, paperboard, cardboard, plastic, and/or metal. Preferably, container tray 10 is a molded thermoplastic material that maintains its shape over time under continuous and regular use. A broad range of moldable thermoplastic materials are within the contemplation of the present invention. A particularly preferred thermoplastic material for use in the present invention is high density polyethylene. Tray 10 may be formed or molded by means well known in the plastic article manufacturing arts.

Referring to FIGS. 1, and 3-5, sleeve 30 is disposed in the enlarged rearward recess 25. Sleeve 30 is formed with a bottom wall 31 (see FIG. 5), front wall 32, opposed side walls 33 and 34, and a rear wall 35. Sleeve 30 is slidably removably disposed in tray recess 25 so that bottom 31 contactingly engages the top face of rearward recess 25 (see FIG. 5). Walls 32, 33, 34, and 35 have respective top edges 36, 37, 28, and 39. Front wall top edge 36 is disposed at a first height above container tray 10, and rear wall top edge 39 is disposed at a second height above container tray 10, which second height is greater than the first height. Therefore, side wall top edges 37 and 38 are slanted between front wall top edge 36 and rear wall top edge 39. Preferably, front wall 32 is approximately 3 inches high between bottom wall 31 and rear wall top edge 36. Preferably, rear wall 35 is approximately 6 inches high between bottom wall 31 and rear wall top edge 39. Preferably, the distance between side walls 33 and 34 is about 3 inches. When device 1 is disposed on a pharmacy shelf (see FIG. 6), the height of rear wall top edge 39 is preferably about 7 inches to about 9 inches above the pharmacy shelf.

Sleeve 30 may be made of any suitable material, such as paper, card stock, paperboard, cardboard, plastic, or metal. Preferably, sleeve is made of a cardboard-like material that can maintain its shape over time under continuous and regular use. A particularly preferred cardboard-like material for use in the present invention is corrugated cardboard having a suitable bursting strength, puncture resistance, and edgewise crush resistance to retain its structure in use. Sleeve 30 may be readily manufactured by means well known in the cardboard and box construction arts.

Referring to FIG. 6, device 1, in another aspect, includes sleeve 11 and container tray 12, wherein sleeve 11 removably holds or contains a plurality of informational materials (i.e., documents) 50, and container tray 12 holds or contains one or more medication supply containers 63 and 64 in respective recesses 23 and 24. Informational materials 50 convey information regarding or related to the medication in medication supply containers 63 and 64. Informational materials 50 may be printed material, such as pamphlets, brochures, or individual pages. Also, Informational materials 50 may be media, such as compact discs (CDs), digital versatile discs (DVDs), and video or audio cassettes.

Referring to FIG. 7, forward recesses 23 and 24 are sized to each slidably receive a medication supply container 63 and 64. Preferably, forward recesses 23 and 24 are specifically sized to each slidably receive a medication supply container of a particular shape. Alternatively, forward recesses 23 and 24 may be generally sized to each slidably receive a conventionally or generically shaped medication supply container. In use, either one or both of forward recesses 23 and 24 may hold respective medication supply containers 63 and 64. Often, device 1 will be employed for the limited use of holding only one medication supply container in either recess 23 or 24, which limited use does not impact on the effectiveness and utility of the present invention.

A plurality of informational materials 50 are slidably received and removeably held in sleeve 30. Preferably, informational materials 50 are of a size and shape to be slidably received and removeably held in their respective upright position, such that any texts on the front side of informational materials 50 are easily readable by the pharmacist or pharmacy staff while looking at device 1; Significantly, informational materials 50 contain information relating to the medication in medication supply containers 63 and 64. Sleeve 30 is preferably adapted to hold or contain about 30 to about 50 documents.

Referring to FIGS. 6, 8, and 9, the invention is shown assembled. Container tray 10 is disposed on pharmacy shelf 40 so that tray front edge is coincident or near coincident with shelf edge 41 as best shown in FIG. 6. As stated above, container tray 10 is sized to fit within the dimensions of pharmacy shelf 40. In the arrangement shown in FIGS. 6, 8, and 9, a pharmacist or pharmacy staff user is able to readily locate and identify medication supply containers 63 and 64 containing the specifically desired medication, for example, by referring to container label 65. The pharmacist, at the time of locating the specifically desired medication supply containers, will be in sight of informational materials 50 in sleeve 30, which informational materials 50 contain information and/or promotions related to the particular medication in the medication supply containers 63 and 64. The pharmacist or pharmacy staff user who fills the prescription first removes one of the medication storage containers 63 or 64 from the container tray 10, dispenses medication from the selected medication storage container into another bottle that is to be given to a patient or customer. Subsequently, the pharmacist or pharmacy staff user replaces the medication storage container in container tray 10, removes a document 50 from the sleeve 30, and simultaneously gives both the bottle of medication and the document to the patient or customer, for example, in a bag.

One advantage, of the present invention is to reduce the problem of lost, misplaced, or discarded information materials, which is a perennial problem in the restricted space behind the pharmacy prescription counter. The present invention assists the pharmacist and pharmacy staff in remembering to provide informational materials with the prescription.

Having thus described a presently preferred embodiment of the present invention, it will be appreciated that the objects of the invention have been achieved, and it will be understood by those skilled in the art that changes in construction and widely differing embodiments and applications of the invention will suggest themselves without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. The disclosures and description herein are intended to be illustrative and are not in any sense limiting of the invention. 

1. A device for pharmacy prescription shelf use to store medications and informational materials related to the medications comprising: a sleeve adapted to receive and removably hold a plurality of informational materials related to a medication; a tray adapted to hold the sleeve in juxtaposed proximity to a medication supply container that contains the medication; whereby informational materials disposed in the sleeve may be simultaneously retrieved with medication from the medication supply container.
 2. The system of claim 1, said container tray having a length defined between its respective front and rear edges, and said pharmacy prescription shelf having a width defined between its respective front and rear edges, wherein the length of the container tray is substantially equal to the width of the pharmacy prescription shelf, whereby the front edge of the container tray is disposed substantially at the front edge of the pharmacy prescription shelf.
 3. The system of claim 1, said container tray being formed with a rearward recess specifically sized to receive the sleeve, and at least one forward recess specifically sized to receive a particular medication supply container.
 4. A device for pharmacy prescription shelf use to store medications and informational materials related to the medications comprising: a sleeve adapted to receive and removably hold a plurality of informational materials comprising information related to a medication; a tray comprising means for holding a medication supply container that contains the medication and further comprising means for holding the sleeve in juxtaposed proximity to a medication supply container; whereby a user may locate the medication supply container and the documents, and subsequently provide both a supply of the medication and one of the plurality of informational materials to a person requesting the supply of the particular medication.
 5. The device of claim 4, wherein the sleeve and the tray are formed so that the informational materials and medication supply container are simultaneously viewable by the user when the tray is disposed on a pharmacy shelf adjacent the forward edge thereof.
 6. A system for pharmacy prescription shelf use to store medications and informational materials related to the medications comprising: a pharmacy prescription shelf; and a device comprising: a sleeve adapted to receive and removably hold a plurality of informational materials comprising information related to a medication; a tray comprising means for holding a medication supply container that contains the medication and further comprising means for holding the sleeve in juxtaposed proximity to a medication supply container; whereby a user may locate the medication supply container and the documents, and subsequently provide both a supply of the medication and one of the plurality of informational materials to a person requesting the supply of the particular medication.
 7. The system of claim 6, wherein the sleeve and the tray are formed so that the informational materials and medication supply container are simultaneously viewable by the user when the tray is disposed on the pharmacy shelf adjacent the forward edge thereof. 